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I was skeptical at first but once I tried it I was a convert. In spite of the residual mess in the oven!Having a stainless steel oven interior is decidedly an asset now. My old oven was difficult to clean but the results were worth it. I discovered that if I use a broiler pan with a slotted insert, potato wedges placed in the pan under the slotted insert, become nicely baked, browned and flavored with chicken fat. (High calorie but delicious.)

Edited by andiesenji, 22 January 2006 - 12:57 PM.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry PratchettMy blog:Books,Cooks,Gadgets&Gardening

I learned how to cook chicken this way when I worked in restaurants. It was one of the items we prepared often for staff meal which we had around 5pm before service. In many restaurants the ovens are turned to one temperature during service - high (500 F) and you don't touch that dial. So we would get these little chickens, season them up, rub them with oil and just throw them in the oven, no trussing, no fussing, no basting and they came out beautifully crispy.

However one vey important thing to rememeber (besides starting with a clean oven): They must rest, sit on the counter covered loosely with foil, for 15 minutes before carving because the juices need to redistribute before you carve the chickens. I think that is one of the biggest problems at thanksgiving - people pull that big bird out of the oven and immediately start hacking away at it which means that all the juices come streaming out and you have a dry bird.

That makes sense. I often prepare it when baking bread. I have a commercial (Blodgett) oven and crank it up to a high temp for baking sourdough, rustic type loaves or pizza, etc., and put the chickens in after the bread is done.

I always allow anything roasted in the oven to coast for thirty minutes, I learned that a long, long time ago.

I grew up in the south and roast chicken was a Sunday regular but it was roasted in a covered pan and the cover removed part way through for browning. It always seemed to produce a lot of liquid but these were older and larger birds and it took much longer.

The higher temp, shorter time produces a better result, in my opinion.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry PratchettMy blog:Books,Cooks,Gadgets&Gardening

It works best with smaller birds - the largest I do this way are 4 pounds or less.

I also tried it with duck, when I had a couple of small ones and wanted the bones and "remainders" for duck stock. I just wanted the meat cooked enough to pull off the carcass easily. It was very good.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry PratchettMy blog:Books,Cooks,Gadgets&Gardening

Barbara Kafka came out with a great book about 10 years ago called, "Roasting," and she addressed the high heat recipe for every size and kind of meat. I remember Barbara cooking a 12 pound turkey on good morning america during the course of the show in 1 1/2 hours.
The recipe I had in my book was for a 3 1/2 pound chicken which you cook in a 450 F. oven for 45 minutes and then let rest for 15 before carving. A larger roast would take longer. You would have to refer to her book.
I remember when we did that roast on GMA, Julia Child happened to watch and called me up afterwards to express her incredulity. When she tried it her kitchen smoked up (= stove not impeccably clean) and she did not approve.

one of the reasons I had a super-duty exhaust system installed when I remodeled - the smoke alarms kept sounding off.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry PratchettMy blog:Books,Cooks,Gadgets&Gardening